cleanliness

Registered User

Its been a while since i have posted anything on here - but these last few weeks reading other people's threads has been a real help. My mum was first diagnosed 3 years ago and for a period of time she did seem to be doing really well, she's been on aricept since diagnosis and has been coping pretty much with carers coming in daily. The carers (unknown to me) were stopped. My mum was being very difficult when they were coming round and not letting them help in any way.

The problem now is that my mum's hygiene and cleanliness has deteriorated significantly and i am finding it increasingly difficult to tackle her over this. She has also started displaying some strange other behaviour (like buying tonnes of dog food which she doesn't need and hoarding out of date food which she was never going to eat...she will only eat stir fry which she insits on having every day)

We have now re-instated the carers who are hopefully going to take her shopping and do some cleaning - i was wondering if anyone else has experienced similar behaviours?

Volunteer Moderator

The hygiene issue seems to be a universal one. Everyone seems to have a stage or two of it. My mother had quite a long bout of it. I had to try many different things and they didn't necessarily all work. It depended on her day. I even would tell her she stunk and needed a wash & clean clothes. She would wear the same underwear for several days !

I suspect asking your mother if she wants help only elicits a no. I would suggest having someone else distract her while you go through the out of date food. Does she have a dog? If not, maybe there's a dog shelter you can donate the food too.